“I
have also a very Texan drama unpublished in my desk,” Simms wrote to state
legislator, Armistead Burt, in January 1845, “which will make a rumpus, be
sure, if ever it reaches light upon the stage.”[1] That drama, Michael Bonham, was originally published pseudonymously (by “A
Southron”) in the Southern Literary
Messenger from February to June 1852.
Richmond publisher, John R. Thompson, released it as a small pamphlet
after its serial run in July 1852.[2] The drama is based on James Butler Bonham, a
South Carolina native and lieutenant in the Texas Calvary, who died ...